The White Singularity: A Choose Your Own Adventure

Chapter 3: NESCA's Idea

"Me? You give me too much credit!" Zell laughs easily. "I didn't do it. NESCA did. And since you invented NESCA, it's as if you thought of it yourself."

NESCA, or Neuron-Enhanced Supercomputer Array, is a marvel of technology, the first of its kind. She possesses a mechanical body, but her brain, with biological components derived from your neurons, is almost human in structure. This design endows NESCA with the ability to employ fuzzy logic, intuition, and learning, making her a truly intelligent and self-aware entity.

"NESCA?" You echo. You don't know if you're supposed to feel reassured or even more alarmed. "What did she do?"

"Well, she's been hinting at a new discovery for ages, but I wasn't listening to her." Zell looks uncomfortable, and you grin secretly at her admission. 

 When you made NESCA, you found it unwieldy talking to her by installing microphones and speakers everywhere, so instead, you ordered the construction of a mobile unit that could follow you around. Predictably, your hormonal junior scientists created one in the form of a realistic-looking woman with short copper hair and disconcerting bottle-green eyes.

A rather attractive, curvaceous woman. When appropriately clothed, you would never know she isn't human.  You sometimes wonder if NESCA has ever been propositioned by anyone unaware of what she is. Each time, you quickly decide that you don't want to know.

Since NESCA was activated, you've gotten the distinct feeling that your wife has become a little insecure. After all, the—robot? Android? She doesn't fit the definition for either—is several inches taller than her and physically flawless. You sometimes tease Zell about it, but she archly maintains that being jealous of a computer is silly. You agree in theory, but when you look at NESCA's perfectly crafted features and the googly-eyed expressions of your scientists, you sometimes wonder exactly how silly it is.

"Anyway, Zell continues, "she'd been playing around with your theorem, and she thought about recreating your experiment, except..." she pauses dramatically.

"Except?" You repeat.

"Except instead of using plutonium, she suggested using a tiny bit of antimatter," Zell continues in a hushed voice.

Antimatter. The antithesis of ordinary matter. If you crushed an amount of ordinary matter into an infinitely small space, you would get a singularity. If you crushed an amount of antimatter the same way...

You stop cold, your mind roiling as you strive to grasp the consequences of doing such a dangerous thing. "That's—that's insane!" You gasp out after a few seconds, furiously doing calculations. "My God, if the field didn't hold—"

"That's not the point," your wife interrupts impatiently. "Come on, lightning-brain, tell me the implications. I know you don't need NESCA to do it for you."

While a tiny part of your mind wonders where lightning-brain came from, the rest seems frozen in shock. "Instead of the usual singularity, you would create a reverse singularity," you murmur. "The exact opposite of a black hole. Instead of sucking objects in—"

"It would push them away," Zell continues in satisfaction. "Create a tiny reverse singularity, channel its antigravity field to surround a specially built craft, and voila! Instant terra-ship! Better than Unobtainium, don't you think?"

You shake your head, overwhelmed. "The implications are incredible!" You burst out. "With that kind of field, we could go almost anywhere. We would just need a power source to feed the singularity—a portable nuclear reactor, maybe—and some way to channel the antigravity...maybe a strong enough magnetic field would do it..."

Your eyes become slightly glassy as you mull over these problems, but then your innate sense of pragmatism strikes.

"This is all very exciting," you say gently, trying to mask your disappointment, "but we don't have the funding to explore any of it."

Zell stops you with a finger to your lips. "What would you say," she says, smiling mischievously, "If I went before the committee before you arrived--and they said already yes?"